Delegating as a Small Business Owner: First 5 Things

[00:00:00] Jen: Hello and welcome to the Women Conquer Business Show. I'm Jen McFarland, joined by Shelley Carney. We're your go-to small business marketing show covering breaking marketing news that affects you cool apps we found, and how to deep dive into a marketing topic with a side of motivation and inspiration.

[00:00:24] We'll also talk a little about our own entrepreneurial journeys as well. Are you ready? Let's get started.

[00:00:35] Well, hello and welcome to Women Conquer Business. I feel like it's been actually forever, since we've done this. I like for those of you watching or listening, you're like, nothing. This is normal. But Shelley and I haven't seen each other for what, two weeks? Two and a half. Oh yeah. It's been . I dunno, it's

[00:00:58] Shelley: been forever.

[00:00:59] You Halloween, so it was before Halloween. , yeah,

[00:01:03] Jen: I left on Halloween. That's right. Yeah. Cause I

[00:01:04] Shelley: opened up stream yard and there was this Halloween background. I'm like, oh yeah,

[00:01:11] Jen: So today we're gonna talk about delegation and part of the reason for that, as I've mentioned before, is I have an executive assistant now. She's awesome. And it made my vacation way better and more enjoyable. So today we're gonna talk about the first five things you must stop doing now. Must, uh, you know, it depends on what you like to do, what you do professionally.

[00:01:36] There's so many must seems very harsh, even though I wrote that headline. Delegating takes practice, but the benefits to your business are huge. It allows you to grow your business without having to do everything yourself and allows you to focus on the more important tasks like making Money . So, during this episode, we'll talk about the first five things that you really need to [00:02:00] consider delegating, including how to identify what will make the biggest impact on your business.

[00:02:06] But before we get started, how you doing Shelley?

[00:02:09] Shelley: Hey . I'm doing pretty good. For the past two weeks, Toby and I have been taking our day trips and doing car content and he got a new computer and that's been giving us some fits and starts, but it's doing alright, and things are coming along, and I am preparing for a big Thanksgiving Black Friday event coming up next week where I'll be premiering my new signature course and implementation program called Livecast Lifestyle.

[00:02:41] So I'm excited about that cuz it took me all summer to build it and put it together. Oh, so you got it done while I was gone. It done .

[00:02:50] Jen: I'm so excited. You got it done while I was

[00:02:51] Shelley: gone. Oh yeah. It's all set up now. And another fun thing was I, Toby and I did a show about. HubSpot and the Tilt put out a report that we talked about on one of our shows, and then I put out as a blog post.

[00:03:05] So the Tilt took that and put it in their newsletter and sh and said, go read this. It's very fun, and I was like,

[00:03:11] Jen: exciting. Oh wow. That's awesome. That's like exposure to what, 50,000 people or something like that? Is that something like that . Huge newsletter. That's amazing.

[00:03:21] Congratulations. Yeah.

[00:03:23] Shelley: So, we're excited. Hopefully something will come a bit .

[00:03:25] Jen: Aloha. I wanna hear about Hawaii. I was in Hawaii the last two weeks. I won't spend too much time talking about it except to say if you have the chance to go to a warm place with ocean and relaxation and time away from your phone, , take that opportunity.

[00:03:48] I will. I'll say we were gone for Island. Oh, which island? Oh, we were on Hawaii, the big island. Oh, big island. Uhhuh.. Yeah. And near Kona, about 30 miles from Kona. It was, [00:04:00] so this is interesting because we recently had a show about burnout. Mm-hmm. , and then what Shelley knows, but most people listening to the show don't know is after that I had a massive meltdown, of burnout, because sometimes we talk about the things we know, and that's really what happens.

[00:04:18] And that was something that I knew. So let me describe that in a different way for you. So, this vacation was really big for me for several reasons. One, I hired somebody to help me with managing the things that I don't like, which we're gonna talk about. That's one of the keys to delegation is finding out what it is that you don't like to do.

[00:04:38] And for me it's email, which is really unfortunate because that's what drives business, and I'm not talking about email marketing, I'm talking about Replying and scheduling and a lot of that stuff. If I spend all my time doing that, then it's really hard for me to do the more creative stuff.

[00:04:52] It's a whole big thing. Everybody has their things. Before I started my business, I was an executive at the City of Portland and one part of my role was to onboard this really large project that was a collaboration between the city of Portland and the Internal Revenue Service or the IRS tax agency.

[00:05:11] And I was on call 24 7, 365, starting in 2014. That was a long time ago. we're talking about, what is that now? Like six or seven years or something? I don't know, eight years. And so, this vacation was the first time that I could put the phone down, be away from it for several days at a time. I did bring my work computer.

[00:05:36] I only needed to get on there for work purposes one time. So, it was good that I brought it because that thing happened that can only be done from a computer. So, it was a significant vacation for me because it was the first time, I was able to delegate. It was the first time that I was able to truly take a break and get away and a hundred percent, put the business aside for a while and focus on [00:06:00] the things that are more important to me, like my friends and my husband.

[00:06:04] And it was delightful, incredibly delightful and rewarding. And I think that's why when I was looking at, we put together a schedule of shows that we're gonna talk about and we had something else and I was like, no, I really wanna move this up because it's been a significant event and change.

[00:06:22] So that's what I've been doing. I've been basking in this like post Hawaii, like state and like getting back into my business groove this week. We got back on Friday. Today's Thursday, I think I'm finally like, almost, I have a few tasks, but I'm pretty close to caught up at this point.

[00:06:41] Last night I went and saw Jagged Little Pill, the musical with my aunt, and we had a blast. It was a great show. And yeah, so that's me. Do you wanna, you're doing breaking news, so do you wanna do it ?

[00:06:58] Shelley: All right. I don't know if this is exactly news, but I wanted to share it. Understanding your audience, how to age down or grow up.

[00:07:06] And this is all about using YouTube in a way that is focused on bringing the kind of content that the different age groups enjoy, to life and understanding what it is that each age group is looking for. And it talks about Gen Z and what they're looking for. They're the first digital native generation.

[00:07:30] They don't know a world without the internet , which is like, oh wow. People wouldn't know what to do if the internet shut off, would you ?

[00:07:40] Jen: Yeah. But it's amazing because they see possibilities.

[00:07:43] Shelley: Okay. Yeah. They have their advantages, disadvantage, absolutely. And my son is a Gen Z, so I have nothing against them, but it is funny that they just have never known life without the internet.

[00:07:55] So they give you tactics and insights about Gen Z [00:08:00] and it says 84% of Gen Zers are overwhelmed by their work and activities. So, they want something that's going to allow them to decompress and just relax and zone out. So, I'm like, okay, great. I've got some meditation videos on my channel, . Right. Maybe that'll.

[00:08:20] And then we talk about millennials 1977 to 1995. Is that a huge generation? That is huge. And they talk about millennials. They grew up with YouTube 1977 . They didn't have internet until the mid-nineties, so I don't know. And but they understand what YouTube is. But they're looking for life lessons.

[00:08:44] How to adult, how to be a good dad. You know what dads know how to do; they know how to fix the lawnmower. They know how to change a tire on the bike, and these things that your dad knew how to do that you're like, when you get to be an adult. I don't know how to do that .

[00:09:00] Jen: Because that just shows like how big of a cohort it is though, that they wanna learn how to adult.

[00:09:05] That would be the people that are in the born, in the nineties. Exactly. You know, because my, my friends who are in the earlier part of that cohort are like, have they been adulting for a long time? Yeah. ,

[00:09:16] Shelley: they are dad. And there,

[00:09:16] Jen: they get it. They're like, they get it. Yeah. So that's interesting.

[00:09:19] Oh yeah. Gen Z wants to stay hip. Oh,

[00:09:23] Shelley: you feel that? And X wants to stay hip, right? Yeah. Gen X wants to stay hip again. 65 to 76. At least. That's a smaller age

[00:09:30] Jen: gap. Our group everybody forgets about us. Nobody loves us. Oh, ,

[00:09:36] Shelley: you think that about you? What about me? I. I'm not exactly a boomer because when I we'll get into boomers in just a moment, but Gen X wants to stay hip.

[00:09:44] They wanna know what's going on in the world. What is happening, what does this new lingo that the kids are speaking, what does that mean? my God. So, these are the kinds of information that they're looking for on YouTube and. [00:10:00] 1946 to 1964. Another huge bunch of years, which is why I said that I'm in Generation Jones, which is from 57 to 64 which is that because I'm not, I don't consider myself a boomer.

[00:10:12] Boomer is from baby boom, which means after people came back from the war in 19, and you're not part of that, before war, they started having. Yeah, you're not part of that. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not a war baby. my dad was in the Navy during peace time. It was, there was no war going on when I was around and born.

[00:10:31] And so boomers are not really an accurate name for my generation, but this I found interesting and condescending. They said Boomers use the internet too. Like duh, we invented how many things, and you want wanna say, oh, we use the internet. Like we don't know how or something. to be fair,

[00:10:53] Jen: not all boomers use the internet of them.

[00:10:56] Don't get it.

[00:10:58] Shelley: You're correct. One in three boomers use YouTube to learn about products or services. So, they also talk about being adaptive for boomers because they're getting older. You wanna think about what kind of information they might need. For instance, I, when Toby and I talk about our day trips, I like to include if you are in a, in a wheelchair or if you are using a walker or a cane, here's what you need to think about when you go here.

[00:11:27] I try to be more inclusive, and that's all happened in the last year because my mom is now in a wheelchair having a stroke. So, I think more about that, what people might,

[00:11:38] Jen: yeah. And the thing about that, and it's, it goes, it goes, and it speaks to the other part of this, right?

[00:11:46] So what you're talking about when you talk about being more inclusive, you're talking about it in, in terms of age, but it's also being more inclusive in terms of, People of other abilities, and [00:12:00] those are its values. And so, we look at cohorts, and I learned a lot of this from David Allison.

[00:12:07] He owns a company and speaks to the importance of values in marketing. So, a lot of times people talk about cohorts, age cohorts, but then you take that, and you infuse that with values. So, the younger especially Gen Z they want to be as inclusive as possible, inclusive of people using canes and walkers and people of all genders, more inclusivity.

[00:12:34] So you're actually crossing over into another cohort when you start talking about values. And I think that that's the thing that like really grounds us in what is it that we offer people that are both in our age group, and share our values, and those are the people that we wanna connect with. You don't wanna talk to just any old boomer or any old Gen X, or you wanna talk to your people that are in that cohort.

[00:13:03] So when I look at this, I always look at it from the perspective of, yes, this is what in general, this is what people of different age demographics want. And then you go, okay, but what is it that my people value? What is it that my people need that also fits within that framework? And that's how I think we can all be more inclusive of what, of what will connect.

[00:13:31] How do you feel about that, Shelley? Does that make sense?

[00:13:34] Shelley: Oh, absolutely. And I, and you have to think about, okay, each platform kind of caters to an age group or a cohort as you say, but YouTube pride itself on. Catering to all ages. Yes. Crosses over no little kids, all the way up to old people.

[00:13:50] Everybody can find something that they enjoy on YouTube. Unlike, with TikTok, it's I don't get it. I don't, what? No And if you didn't start out with [00:14:00] Instagram than, you don't use it. If you started off with Facebook, you didn't change over to Instagram.

[00:14:05] If you started off with Instagram, you didn't change over to TikTok. If you started out with TikTok, you're not gonna change over to whatever comes next. It's just you stick with that thing that was popular when you were a teenager. Yeah. Yeah. It's good to know.

[00:14:20] Jen: It's all very interesting, and that's what's so cool and you know all this from growing a channel before, like you found something that everybody, searching for treasure.

[00:14:29] Everybody liked that. And it probably at some points didn't matter how old anybody was, cuz they were all out searching for treasure. That's right. Yeah.

[00:14:38] Shelley: Yeah. So cool. And the main guy who has hidden the treasure was 80 when he hit it. So, everybody you know would say, oh, it's probably up this mountain.

[00:14:45] And we'd have to say, no. He climbs a mountain, he's 80 . Yeah.

[00:14:49] Jen: So yeah. That's really, that's cool. I appreciate that Breaking news. Yeah, I like

[00:14:54] Shelley: that. Yeah. So, we'll have that link in the description box and that came from Tube Buddy, so they have all the statistics, so they know what they're talking about.

[00:15:02] Woo. . Are we ready to move forward? I'm

[00:15:04] Jen: ready.

[00:15:08] Okay. So today we're gonna talk about how to identify what to delegate that will make the biggest impact on your business. And this is something that a lot of people talk about. I will share what I, hot tip, like what I tell everybody in my marketing presentations. At the beginning. And because I teach marketing to lots of groups of business owners, many people who are at the beginning of their business, but really this advice works for everybody.

[00:15:40] Regardless of how far along you are in your business, because we're always in a state of change and growth. So, you have to think about what you need to delegate, and you have to think about the things that never get done, . So, when I talk about marketing in particular, I say you have to [00:16:00] have an honest conversation with yourself about what do you like to do?

[00:16:03] What do you not like to do? And then line that up with like your business goals. And if there are things that you actually need to do that will help you meet your business goals, then, and you're never gonna do them , then these are the things that you have to hire somebody. And that's the case with all of these things.

[00:16:20] When you look at your business and you're like, okay, I don't like X, Y, Z. , you have to hire somebody for that. If you don't like doing finance, you have to hire somebody for that. So the caveat to what we're gonna talk about is always looking inward, looking at your business, looking at your goals, and being able, as a business leader or business owner, whether you have a staff or you're one person, whether you're working at home or not, is you have to have that honest conversation about what are my blind spots, , that I'm not good at, that I need help with?

[00:16:59] And then those are the gaps that you have to start closing. Because if you don't, then those things aren't being tended to and there are certain pillars of business that need to be tended to, or it really stifles.

[00:17:18] Shelley: Yeah. Although I think sales and marketing is kind of inherent in any business. I know there's a lot of people who are just like me who are just like, I'd just rather create content. Can't that just happen magically, .

[00:17:30] Jen: It can, but you have to underpin it with something at least to keep the lights on until you tip over into content full time.

[00:17:43] You know what I mean? And, but if you don't have time, say to do collaborations or you don't have time to do all of the things, you really do need to get some help in some areas that will help you grow until that magic time one [00:18:00] year content is sustaining you. They say, I remember that from the.

[00:18:04] that report, it takes what, like 18 months? Isn't that what that said? Yes, mm-hmm. . So, you've gotta do, if you're gonna, if you're embarking on a full-time creator concept, whatever that looks like for you, then you gotta keep the lights on for 18 months. That's right. And it doesn't hurt to delegate some things that will help you in the interim, because those pillars are gonna help you when you do become a creator as well.

[00:18:31] You know what I mean? So, first things, so let's talk about some of the five things that really most people need to delegate because they're wildly different from each other. Nobody can do everything as I've learned. And I think we all learn. We don't, nobody can do everything. Some things are always gonna get missed.

[00:18:51] Mm-hmm. . So, the first one on our list is finance. Do you like doing

[00:18:55] Shelley: finance? No, that's why I have a partner who takes care of all the finances, .

[00:19:02] Jen: I don't like doing finance either.

[00:19:04] Shelley: But then when I wanna get something, a piece of software or something, I have to ask him now, he says I don't, but I do. I it's his money and he's in charge of the finances and I'm not just gonna take money out of the bucket.

[00:19:16] Cuz that would mess him up. If he's in charge of the finances, he's in charge of all of it. And that even includes if we're gonna buy something, he needs to be in charge of that. Yeah.

[00:19:27] Jen: Yeah. And so, what I did, I don't like finance either. And I identified that as one of the first things probably because my dad is an accountant, was an auditor and all of that.

[00:19:38] And I worked at the finance bureau at the City of Portland, and I was, and everybody always thought it was so hilarious cuz I don't like finance . So, but that wasn't my job. My job wasn't to like process taxes. My job was to. Find the best apps, streamline processes, manage large projects. That was what my job [00:20:00] was.

[00:20:00] So I was very good at my job, but I also stayed out of my lane. Like I wasn't there to oversee like any sort of finance. That's not my job. My job was to make sure all the pieces worked that would support making those financial apps and technology, making sure that supported the people who were managing taxes and tax accounts, that it all worked properly, calculated correctly.

[00:20:27] Mm-hmm. , which as a person who pays taxes, you want that . So, it was very important work, but it was not, I never touched a calculator.

[00:20:36] Shelley: Yeah. In my day work. Yeah. If you're bringing in money, you gotta do taxes. So, you get some help if

[00:20:40] Jen: you're no longer. Yeah. So, when we talk about getting help with finance, we're talking about bookkeeping.

[00:20:45] Taxes. If you're gonna take on, like Shelley said, if you're gonna take on additional expenses, somebody who can be like, I, I know, I don't know. But I will say this about hiring somebody to help support your business. You may not always feel like you have the money for that, but sometimes you need to do it because it's what allows you to grow.

[00:21:03] And so these are tough decisions, but having somebody who can support you with finance, I have for a long time I used bench for my accounting and bookkeeping and taxes. I have now taken my information off of Bench and I have Gail Bendert who's a colleague and dear friend of mine, my business partner for Epiphany, she's helping me with all of that , and she's been my person that've been like I wanna this, and she's like, no.

[00:21:31] And. Yes. , but we have these conversations and that's, that

[00:21:36] Shelley: is how it goes. Yeah. You gotta have somebody to run those things back past, or you're gonna buy everything and run outta money. run outta

[00:21:45] Jen: money. Nobody has infinite funds. Right? So that's the reasons. So, if you don't if you're allergic to numbers, , then you need to find somebody who can help you with finance, somebody that you trust infinitely [00:22:00] because mm-hmm.

[00:22:00] Financial malfeasance is also something that does happen. So, you need to make sure that this is somebody who you can entrust with the money, which without revenue and without money, there's no business. So, it's critical that you have somebody helping you. You got anything else on?

[00:22:20] Shelley: Well, and if you feel comfortable with it, you can do it like Jen did on your own, QuickBooks or whatever program that you put your information into, and then it helps you with your taxes at the end of the year.

[00:22:32] But if you just hate it, hate it, hate it, then find somebody and talked with them about what it is that you need and what you know, what you need to be setting up and inputting throughout the year so that when you bring your taxes to them at the end of the year, then they have, all the information laid out in a way that's easy to work with.

[00:22:49] But start right, right away. As soon as you plan on making any money at all you need to get that set up and get started. So, it stays organized and easy to work with for whoever you handed off

[00:23:00] Jen: to. Absolutely. And I'll be honest, when I had QuickBooks, I didn't. and this was my red flag. I was like, I'm not putting this stuff in.

[00:23:08] And then it's the end of the year and it's like, surprise, you made this much money. And it's you can't operate a business like that. So, I moved to Bench where I had people that I could ask questions to and do things, but they weren't somebody I could sit next to, and like really talk it through.

[00:23:23] And I found that I needed more high touch. I liked somebody else who understood QuickBooks. Bench gave me year end reports. I had reports on an ongoing basis, but it was very expensive, and they were gonna raise the price even more. And I was like, can't do it. I can't, might as well hire somebody then.

[00:23:41] Right. , hiring somebody and having somebody as a colleague, the trusted advisor was really much more useful to me and meaningful to me in my business. If you find that, and that's what I mean when I say if there are things, you're never doing that you need to do. Yeah. Like I was overlooking my QuickBooks.

[00:23:57] That's a signal that you need some help with it. [00:24:00] The second thing that you need to delegate is legal. And I will intro this by saying I am married to an attorney. He is not my business attorney. He's not, he doesn't do business law. He's uncomfortable with being the person charged with it. . He wants to be the husband,

[00:24:21] He doesn't wanna be the business attorney. And I love, love, love my attorney, Michael Jonas at Rational Unicorn Legal Services. Fantastic, phenomenal, great, helps people in Washington, Oregon, and California. I'm a huge advocate for him. He specializes in small business creators, all of that stuff. So, you need to find, and it's like a flat fee, , so you know how you don't have to pay for a retainer, which is really powerful.

[00:24:51] Everyone needs to find their own. Michael Jonas, things come up. You may need to have, if you have a podcast, it's really good to have a trademark of that show name so that you're protecting that, that IP (intellectual property), your information. So, you have things that you need help with. Everybody has, if you're serving people if you're a service-based business, you have contracts.

[00:25:15] If you're not a service-based business, but you have vendors, you have contracts, , it's good to have those legally reviewed and understand what you can change in there legally as a business owner. So that's my spiel. There's also an episode, it was before I hired him as my attorney. There's actually really great episode with Michael Jonas.

[00:25:34] We'll put the link to that in the show notes so that you can hear from him exactly what legal things a business owner needs to have. And it will of guide you in how to make those legal. Decisions what a, what an attorney can do to support your small business. And we'll do that. What have you found, Shelley?

[00:25:55] Do you have an attorney or somebody that you talked to about legal stuff or have [00:26:00] you not run into anything?

[00:26:01] Shelley: So far, we haven't needed much. What we have done is I have, there's an attorney who is online, she's like a coach and she does, workshops and that sort of thing, and she has a library of contracts and that sort of thing that you can access.

[00:26:20] Yeah, that cover things specifically related to like online coaching and memberships and things of that nature. I have access to that library of content for contracts and that sort of thing.

[00:26:31] Jen: Oh, that's great. Yeah. I know that there's a few, there's Andrea Sager’s legalpreneur and like some other people.

[00:26:37] Michael Jonas, part of what I like is that they do a lot of online, community-based learning around webinars and stuff that will help creators so you can ask questions mm-hmm. . I think that's what's important for small businesses is to have somebody who is hands on and maybe provides you with resources so you can really wrap your head around it without having to pay , thousands of dollars to go call somebody up or something like that.

[00:27:01] I think it's really important. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. I don't have anything else on legal, do you? Nope. Okay.

[00:27:08] Shelley: Just don't get yourself into contracts or if you got brand deals coming your way or contracts of any kind. Don't sign anything unless you get some professional advice first, because you don't want to, get into a corner, and end up, on the short end of the stick basically.

[00:27:23] Jen: It's really important. I have outsourced content on other platforms, and I've had my attorney review it to make sure that I'm not actually like giving away my intellectual property, your IP, it's just important to protect yourself and that's really what an attorney can do for you. Yes, legal support.

[00:27:41] If you're not an attorney, legal support is very helpful. Yeah, so the third one and I feel like these first three are just not sexy. Finance. Legal. And finally, insurance . Not sexy. These are not sexy, but they will protect you [00:28:00] and help you. So, I recently got a new insurance agent, very helpful, laid everything out for me, helped me and it was interesting because there's actually insurance that can protect you if you do online courses.

[00:28:16] Also important, not something that people talk about. , there are a lot of coaches and consultants out there that also provide online courses. There's just a lot of information out there that in terms of insurance protects you if something goes horribly, terribly wrong, like something gets hacked, , all the passwords are gone or whatever.

[00:28:36] So these things are very important. It's important to protect your business. Yes. It, I think I pay like $50 a month for insurance. I've done that. Since the beginning, since I registered my business and started, and I remember when I did it, I was like, oh, $50. Oof. If I can afford that , I've never needed it.

[00:28:59] Knock on wood , but I have it. If something happens, it's your first line of defense. It's,

[00:29:08] Shelley: yes. Having an LLC is I think also one of those lines of defense, which you can, work through a lawyer or your local, city , they can walk you through these things as

[00:29:19] Jen: well. Yeah, I registered with the city, the state.

[00:29:23] Yeah. I did all of that myself cuz I, because of where I worked, I knew that needed to happen. Mm-hmm. , your finance person also knows a lot about business formation. Gail is amazing. Insurance People know a lot. Legal people know a lot. That's why these three things, they may not be sexy, but they can really help you with forming your business, doing it right, and protecting yourself and your assets.

[00:29:48] Especially if you're a solopreneur. You don't want somebody to sue you , and then have the ability to go after your personal effects as well. Your house, your car, your [00:30:00] savings. Mm-hmm. . So that's one of the reasons why you do that, is you educate yourself so that you are protecting yourself. That's the whole reason of for doing it.

[00:30:10] Shelley: Yeah. If you're setting up a business and you reach out to the small business association, these are the three things that they will tell you that you need to have in place is your legal, your insurance, and the finances and, to make sure that's all set up properly before you get started.

[00:30:27] Moving money around.

[00:30:29] Jen: Yeah. And these aren't people you need every day. But these are things that give you that peace of mind so you can sleep . I like to sleep

[00:30:36] Shelley: and you dunno what you’d know, so make sure that you get educated about it. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:44] Jen: Oh, okay. Can we talk about some fun stuff Now,

[00:30:50] I know if like we do or like clapping or something. I don't know, like something to kinda let's get bumped. Let's talk about

[00:30:57] fun

[00:30:57] Shelley: stuff. Oh, ok. Well, I'll just do retraining again. .

[00:31:01] Jen: I know, I like sprung it on. She, I'm like, let's do this. She's like, oh, come on Jen. What button do I push?

[00:31:06] So the next one is marketing. Okay? Mm-hmm. , that's important to outsource. And I'm not saying this to like, so come work with me. Like that's not what this is about. This is about understanding that if. People don't know you're out there and you're gonna have a hard time spreading the word, especially with online marketing.

[00:31:29] Since Covid, not as many in-person events, even still here in Portland, that's the case. Everybody needs to have some sort of online presence and some sort of offline presence, so people know that you exist. And fundamentally, marketing is getting the word out. Sharing what you care about, telling people who you are and what you do.

[00:31:52] And we all do it without knowing it. And we have to really get in touch [00:32:00] with our business goals and find the ways to get the word out based on those goals that we set up. And sometimes we find that we need. Help with that , including me as a marketer, I need help too. I worked about two, I think it was two years ago, I worked with somebody about messaging.

[00:32:20] I just talked through everything. It's part of this is like when you bring other people into the room, you can really learn so much. One of the things Shelley and I talked about before the show today is how much we've learned from each other by having done this show for 11 months now together, it's, we've learned a lot.

[00:32:37] We've grown a lot, we've changed, we've done things because just having somebody else in the room is so valuable. So do it with your marketing too. Talk to people about where you're gonna name a product. If everybody's I don't even know what that is. , you need some guidance, you need to talk to people.

[00:32:53] You need to bring other people in. And I tend to be the person. It's like I'm the marketing whisperer for people who don't like social media . Cuz, I tell people, you need to diversify your marketing and you still need to do some social media, but if you don't like it, then that's something that you need to find somebody to help you with.

[00:33:12] It's the same with like other aspects of your marketing. If there are products, if there's old blog posts that never get shared, if there's blog posts that need to be written or posted that never seem to get out there, there's so many aspects and elements to marketing. It's good to have some support.

[00:33:30] It's good to have a sounding board, somebody you can talk to about that. Yes. Even if you're Shelley and you like doing everything, I love that part.

[00:33:38] Shelley: But there are times when I do get behind and that's why I have my minimums, right? I have to get this, this, and this. Done. If I get this other thing done, that's gravy.

[00:33:48] That's great. But it's not a have to thing. Exactly. I don't know, marketing is a little bit easier for me, but maybe for other people, they're like, I don't wanna deal with that. [00:34:00] Bring the people to me and I'll sell them whatever I have. They're great at sales, but they don't want to go out and share about their product or

[00:34:07] Jen: service.

[00:34:08] marketing and sales bump up against each other. There are a lot of people who conflate the two, but they are actually separate functions. Like you, there's a sale, like if you go to a big company, there's a sales department and a marketing department. Now there are times where there's crossover and they have to communicate with one another within a company.

[00:34:26] And certainly if you're a solo printer, you're like, I do all the things. I know sales and marketing are all the same. But fundamentally these are like, oh, Jeep girl, Jody, nice to see ya. Hey, how you doing? So, if these two things are fundamentally tied together at different points. I would say if you're like I can handle the marketing, then you may need somebody to help you with sales or even just bringing people into your world, so I, marketing tends to be aka Treasure Princess. That's great. That's me. , that's, that's Shelley. Treasure Princess. I use

[00:35:05] Shelley: my Crown .

[00:35:07] Jen: You of course you have a crown. I'm

[00:35:09] Shelley: gonna wear it under my headset cuz it's just, it hurts

[00:35:11] Jen: So yeah, you need someone maybe who brings people to you, and you can have those sales conversations. Advanced businesses may have people who are like the first line of sales conversations to like warm somebody up and bring in some good leads. There are all different aspects to marketing and then they bleed.

[00:35:29] It bleeds over sometimes into sales. Typically, at some point you'll need some support with this, whether it's a marketing agency or some sales support. But these are things that without doing it, it will inhibit growth at some point. Yeah.

[00:35:45] Shelley: We had a client who he had us, who we did our, we did production for him.

[00:35:50] So he would come on and we would record his presentation and then we'd take the audio and put it up as a podcast for him. And then we would provide him a transcript to give [00:36:00] to his marketing agency meant social. And they would take all of these pieces and they would create more they would create a blog.

[00:36:08] They would have short videos that they would take out of the longer ones. They would do all of that for him. He wanted nothing to do with it. Now, he loved sales, but he did not wanna do the marketing. So, he hired people to do that for him.

[00:36:21] Jen: Exactly, yeah. So, I. I don't really have a lot else to add on the marketing bit.

[00:36:27] It's again, it's about looking in and seeing what it is that you're not doing that you're not interested in doing, but may be essential to growth, especially when you look out at the landscape at all the other folks who do what you do. . So, you need to close those gaps and you probably need some help to do that.

[00:36:45] Yeah. Yeah. Last but certainly not least get some sort of admin support, administrative support. I have an executive assistant. That is, that's like several steps above a VA or a virtual assistant. She's somebody who's taking charge of certain parts of my business, so I can be this like, jolly happy gal that's floating around, show up and you're told to be there.

[00:37:09] Showing up. Yeah, giving me peace of mind. So that may not be what you want. Maybe you want a virtual assistant who can do more data entry. I want somebody who can do scheduling, invoicing, streamlining my processes, light social media, different things. So, find somebody who can lighten your load, give you peace of mind, help you out.

[00:37:33] I found Freedom Makers to be the perfect solution for me because they were vetting people for me. I was, like I said, before I left on vacation, I was super burned out, so I needed somebody to make it easy for me. But there are a lot of solutions out there, a lot of different ways that you can find somebody to really support you.

[00:37:50] But there are certain tasks that you need to ask yourself. Is, is this what I should be doing that's going to help me [00:38:00] grow my business? And those are, that's one of the questions that you need to ask yourself, is this what I need to be doing to grow? If it's not, it's an, it's a hint. You need some help

[00:38:12] Shelley: with it.

[00:38:13] Yeah, absolutely. The things that are falling between the cracks and not getting done, and then a quarter goes by and you're like, why didn't this get done? I guess I need some help to get it done. I'm not going to do it myself. I see that now, .

[00:38:28] Jen: Yeah. But it takes time. These are not things that in the first year or two of your business, you may even be aware of, or you might not know that you need it.

[00:38:36] And especially if you're bootstrapping, self-funding, that kind of thing. Your business, it. you might be like I have to do everything. And what I just wanna encourage you to do is start making that wish list. My top Wishlist item for years when I started my business was somebody to manage my email.

[00:38:52] And everybody thought I was crazy. And I'm like, no, we're realsies, . This is what I need. Cuz I just knew that if I could get my head out of email all the time, I could be a lot more productive. Yeah. And less eh, about the things I don't like to do. I don't wanna spend too much time cuz we still have to go through tweaks of the week and stuff.

[00:39:11] But I will say if you are going down the creator path, you might think about editing, repurposing collaborations, and outreach blogging. There's a lot of different things that you might be looking at on the production side of your creator business that you might need support with. That frees up hours of time for you to create more.

[00:39:33] These things tend to be expensive , but it might be necessary to advance. Your career.

[00:39:40] Shelley: Yeah. Or if you have adult children and they, can take on something even part-time and you can feel good about giving them money because they need the money. that's what I do. I look at, is this something that my daughter could handle or my son and could, could we hire him?

[00:39:54] Toby and I hired our son-in-law a couple of years ago when we were putting a website together to promote [00:40:00] our own treasure hunt. If there's somebody in your family that you can support and they can support you, awesome. But get that help.

[00:40:06] Jen: Yeah. Yeah. I really love this comment we have here from Jeep Girl, Jody.

[00:40:12] That's what I do, basically, office admin, accounting, sales for a business from home. So, I am invisible. I think it's supposed to be proof, but poof through a poof meet. Maybe she meets. Poof. But I do think, yeah, I think that. This is, this is what we're talking about. This is helpful for people. This is essential work for people.

[00:40:37] It's important work. And there are people who want to do it. Yep. And they're there to be hired. I will say this, and I feel very strongly about this, pay for the people that you're using and pay them a fair and living wage. I hate it when I go on in the marketing groups or all of these business groups, and people are like, hiring somebody for five, $2 an hour to be a VA.

[00:41:08] Pay people, pay people for what they are doing. And even if it takes you longer to hire somebody that's very important. This is important work. And you get what you pay for. And you also need to value people and value the work that they're doing.

[00:41:25] Shelley: All right, . Yeah, that's all right.

[00:41:29] And yeah, and Jen is doing this, and it took her a while to get to this point. If this is something you were thinking about, sometimes you don't have to hire a person, you can hire an agency or a small entrepreneur business that does this type of work. Somebody like Jeep Girl, Jody, somebody like us who does your production for you.

[00:41:50] Somebody like Jen who can set up you’re marketing so that, it's easier for you to take care of. Or you can at that point bring in somebody who's just going to follow Jen's, , here's what [00:42:00] Recommendations

[00:42:00] Jen: step. Recommendations and steps. Yeah. It's all good. Yeah. Oh, I like what girl, Jody said, I could not do what you two do.

[00:42:09] So it's all about being a team. And that's exactly it. Value your team, build a team. And support each other. That's

[00:42:17] Shelley: right. And that's what we like to do. Toby and I, we are, complimentary. He takes care of the tasks that I have no interest in. I don't wanna do the money. I hate the money stuff.

[00:42:27] He takes care of it. He's got no problem with that, enjoys it. And I take care of all of the writing stuff. He hates the writing stuff. He doesn't wanna deal with blogs and posts and all of that. And I take care of all that. And you can find a partner like that who you each work to your strengths.

[00:42:44] It's amazing how much you can get done. Absolutely. Yeah. Hundred percent. So, if you're interested in learning more about your marketing and getting a free marketing self-assessment from Jen at Women Conquer Business, go to send fox.com/wcb. Whoop. Copy and put that in the chat.

[00:43:08] Jen: I would also like to say this is your last chance to get Shelley's course, how to create, publish, and distribute content consistently.

[00:43:16] That's at course.agkmedia.studio. The coupon code is AGKSAVER. I believe that this promotion, it ends

[00:43:27] Shelley: tomorrow, doesn't it? That is right. It is your next

[00:43:31] Jen: chance. Go get it. November 18th. So, if you're listening, this is your last chance .

[00:43:37] Shelley: Now the course will still be there. You can get it at any time, but you can't get it free after tomorrow.

[00:43:43] Yeah. Tomorrow's the last day. Tomorrow's the last day for free.

[00:43:46] Jen: Yeah, and I will say also, if you're new to the show and you've enjoyed it, please do subscribe, follow, like, comment really helps us share it with a friend. That's

[00:43:57] Shelley: right. Well, Jodie won't have to feel so [00:44:00] alone.

[00:44:00] Jen: But we like cheat girl, Jodie. I

[00:44:01] Shelley: know when we need more of more people like her to have conversations.

[00:44:06] Jen: Conversations. That's right. So now I'm gonna hand the rest of the show over to Shelley. Oh boy. .

[00:44:14] Shelley: Okay, so we're gonna talk about the tweak of the week. Descript has just come out with their full suite that they've had in beta for a while, and I have been using the beta and it's a little bit frustrating when you're in beta version because they'll make changes and things move from over here, over here, and you're like, wait, where did it go?

[00:44:36] And you have to find it. But now it's done and it's ready and it's open to the public. And I'm just gonna show you what that looks like. This is their pricing and what they offer. These are their plans. You can get started for free and they offer transcription of your audio and video. They offer watermark free video, export video.

[00:44:58] Export resolution starts at seven 20 and goes up to 4k. So amazing. They offer filler word removal, so all the ums and a's and repeats. And when I go, yeah, yeah, Uhhuh. Yeah. They take that out . So, some people aren't like, you're so annoying, that out for you. They have overdub, which clones your voice. So, if you made a mistake, if you're like, oh, I really meant to say November 18th, not November 8th.

[00:45:27] So let me go in. With my clone voice, I can change the word eighth to 18th and it doesn't, people don't even know that you did that. So, it's super to do, be able to do that. They have Did you test that? Have you done it? Oh, oh yeah. Oh yeah, I have. Oh,

[00:45:43] Jen: that's awesome. It is. I've used it. Yeah.

[00:45:46] Shelley: Yeah. It helps. It's saves you. It's I don't wanna re-record this stupid thing. I forgot to say this. I'll stick it in there. That's so awesome. Filler word re oh. Did over to AI green screen. This is something new. Where [00:46:00] they, you can, they can take out your background if your background is ugly and you don't want it.

[00:46:04] On there, you can change the background, which is super cool. And they offer studio sound. So, if, for instance, Jen and I were having a conversation and suddenly her audio went wonky, and we needed to fix that studio sound takes care of that automatically when you apply it. And then they have a stock library of videos, images, and gifts that you can add to your whatever you're creating.

[00:46:28] Super, super fun. Yeah, definitely check it out. They also have multi-language transcription. The, they detect speakers. So, if I put something in there and it's got like for instance, that panel that we did last year where we had Toby plus six guests, it will. Separate out the people, and you can label them with their names.

[00:46:50] And once you've labeled, this is, they'll let you listen to the voice and you go, oh, that's Jen. Oh, that's Shelley. Oh

[00:46:56] Jen: yeah. I love that. Yeah, I love that feature. I do that with our show. I'm excited. I ha so in the beta, aside from the updates, have you enjoyed it? Do you like the updates?

[00:47:07] Shelley: I do.

[00:47:08] You know what's great about it is that, let me stop sharing here, is that you can take and put your video up in there and it transcribes it, and then you go, here's a clip, a quote that I really like. And you can take the quote out, make a new composition with just that quote. You can change it to a different shape.

[00:47:27] So if you want it to be a real, or you want it to be a square you can change the shape. Then you can caption it, you can throw in a couple of gift stickers that are like, woo, whatever you want. And it's. It doesn't require any editing knowledge. So, although I know how to edit and I do have editing programs, there are times when this is so much easier and faster and simpler because it's specifically set up for this.

[00:47:53] But if you've never edited anything, all you have to do is go in and change the words and it changes the audio [00:48:00] and the video at the same time. Now your mouth isn't gonna change. If you're saying one word, your mouth's still gonna be moving, but unless people can read lips, they're not gonna know

[00:48:09] Yeah. So, I love it. It's super cool.

[00:48:12] Jen: Highly I'm a pro user. I will admit, I don't use everything because I just haven't put in the time to learn it. But I lo I love, love. Love the script. Like almost to the point where if I could marry a script, I'm

[00:48:25] Shelley: just

[00:48:30] Jen: So, I think we're just dating and

[00:48:31] Shelley: they're always updating it and making it better and listening to people's input about what they want, and they see if they can make that happen. So, it's a very responsive platform. It's not super cheap, but it's not super expensive either for what you're getting. It is super reasonable.

[00:48:48] If you were, for instance subscribing to Adobe products for editing, this is cheaper than that and it's much easier to use and there's no real big learning curve. So, it's,

[00:48:58] Jen: yeah, it's real cool. No, and if my little plugins that I use in Garage Band would go into the script, which they may be working on, then I wouldn't even use Garage Band anymore because I use some plugins in Garage Band to boost the sound and make it.

[00:49:16] For a podcast. Mm-hmm. . So, it sounds better than if you're watching on YouTube. There's just different settings and things. But I'll go, then I go back into script and take out like some of the stuff that, that I say that I'm like, no, .

[00:49:33] Shelley: Yeah. And it's really easy, just, you just highlight the words, delete, and it takes it out, out of the audio, outta the video, everything.

[00:49:42] Yeah. But these, and then it adjusts so it sounds right. So, it's not like a big put it back together.

[00:49:54] Jen: That's awesome. I didn't know about making clips for reels or social media. That's phenomenal. [00:50:00] Yeah,

[00:50:00] Shelley: I used it yesterday for that. I made it a square one, but you can also make them the real shape. Yeah. Super cool. Awesome. So, I'm gonna be doing more of that now that I've figured it out. .

[00:50:15] Jen: Hmm. Yeah, maybe you'll do it for this show.

[00:50:17] Maybe I

[00:50:17] Shelley: will . Maybe I will. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay. Now we're gonna talk inspiration. Oh, sorry. Let's go back. I forgot this. Yeah. . There is something that I learned how to do on my phone this week. It's called Remix. When you have your own YouTube channel and you go to the YouTube app on your phone, and then you go to your channel and then you pick a video, and then you look below the video, you'll see something that says remix.

[00:50:54] If you tap on that, it will let you make shorts in the correct shape, for your YouTube. It's oh I said this really cool thing. It was about 15 seconds long. Let me just highlight that. Make it into a short, sends it up, puts the original link from the original video, the long form video on there.

[00:51:16] So cool. So easy to use. So, check that out. If you have a YouTube channel and you wanna make sure it's out of your long form content, that is super easy way to do it.

[00:51:27] Jen: I need the link for that. Oh, ,

[00:51:31] Shelley: I just told you what to do.

[00:51:32] Jen: Oh wait, we'll put it in the show notes. Oh, then I'll read about it in the show notes.

[00:51:36] That's right

[00:51:37] Shelley: about it in the show notes. So, it's called Remix and it's on your phone in the YouTube app. That's awesome. Got it. How exciting. All right, now we can move forward. ,

[00:51:49] Jen: I don't know, I found that very inspirational, but go

[00:51:51] Shelley: ahead. Oh, all right. That was inspiring to me. Yes. So, this is from Marcus Aureus.

[00:51:56] When you are distressed by an external thing, it's not the thing [00:52:00] itself that troubles you, but only your judgment of it. And you can wipe this out in a moment's notice what false judgment can I wipe away today? Basically, anything that happens isn't a good thing, isn't a bad thing. It is what you say it is.

[00:52:19] If you think it's good, it's good. If you think it's bad, it's bad. But you can change your mind on it too. So that's just a little inspirational nugget that I want you to think about throughout the week. If something happens and you immediately knee jerk is oh no, that's horrible. Try to turn that around and say, how is this a good thing?

[00:52:40] How could this be perceived as a good thing? And that's gonna help lift you up and keep you from getting too anxious or worried about every little thing that's gonna come up in your life. What do you think, Jen?

[00:52:55] Jen: Is that like self-talk?

[00:52:58] Shelley: It is, but it's about understanding that your perception is changeable.

[00:53:05] Jen: Oh, that's, yeah. Yeah. I love

[00:53:08] Shelley: that. Yeah. You can always change what you think about something. I could tell you a story about that. Yeah. So, there was this, it's a story. There was a farmer and he struggled for many, many years to save some money to buy a stallion. So that he could make money off of stud fees and raise horses.

[00:53:33] And everybody said, oh, well, that, that must have been really hard for you. What a great thing you've done. And he says, good thing, bad thing. Who knows? Well, one day the stallion jumped over the fence and ran away, and everybody was like, oh no. Oh no. What a horrible thing. And the man said, good thing, bad thing.

[00:53:53] Who knows? About a week later, the stallion came back, and he brought with him a herd [00:54:00] of horses that he was the alpha male, and he brought his harem, his herd of horses with him. They put them all in the corral. Now he had a. Bunch of horses and everybody's like, wow, what a great thing. And he'd say, good thing, bad thing.

[00:54:14] Who knows? One day the son, his son was working with the horse, and the horse kicked him, and it broke his leg and he had to have in the cast. And everybody's like, oh no, that was horrible. What a sad thing. And he's good thing, bad thing. Who knows? The army came through and they were recruiting and drafting, actually drafting young men for the army to go off to war.

[00:54:40] And they couldn't take him because he had a broken leg. So, the moral of the story is good thing, bad thing. Who knows? Don't judge it right away. Wait and see. Yeah. Yeah. Love it.

[00:54:54] Jen: Hard to. Hard to do. So necessary. , .

[00:54:59] Shelley: But the less you attach meaning to every little thing, the more calm you'll be able to be.

[00:55:05] Yeah. Accepting for true. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I hope that was helpful for people and you'll think about that throughout the week. Jen and I are going to be recording an episode soon for our Thanksgiving show. So, we will have a show for Thanksgiving, but it won't be live. That's right. I'll be a different show, but

[00:55:26] Jen: I won't be live.

[00:55:27] We're pre-recording this. Yeah. And so, everybody has a great week. I hope you have so much fun with your families and friends. If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, I know not everybody does. So, let's love and support one of each other and share as much gratitude as we can with others.

[00:55:48] Shelley: Yes, and I'm thankful for you, Jen. I'm thankful for you too, Shelley, have a great week. Thank you for joining the Women Conquer Business Podcast, hosted by Shelley [00:56:00] Carney and Jen McFarland. Please subscribe and leave a comment or question regarding your most challenging content creation or business problem.

[00:56:08] Then share this podcast with family and friends so they can find the support they need to expand their brand and share their message with the world. Check the show notes for links to valuable resources and come back again next week.